Assignment #2

This assignment proved to be a lot more difficult. The intricate integration of 4 neighbors into a 9 square site made the design process incredibly slow. Every idea, concept, adjustment had to be checked and verified that it didn’t impinge on their designs.

I closely worked with Tony’s Client; Part Attendant Lady. Tony’s design was a bunker structure buried into the ground. Mine client on the other hand was the Bridgeman. The 2 characteristics that both our clients had in common was that they enjoyed the outdoors and this became a prominent objective. 

To unify our designs we created a roof top garden, which worked coherently with both of our ideas. The roof garden is a significant feature, Tony’s ceiling became my floor plane we moved, sculpted and orientated our openings to point towards our views. A large organically curved wall sweeps across both floor levels which is a shared element in our building. But the 2 floors interpret and utilise the wall in different ways and results in an interesting interpretation of the same element.

Trees were carefully positioned to provide clear view out towards the garden landscape. 

Assignment #1

My first design was a mash up of ideas. I attempted to combine all my character’s personality and needs’ into this design. Through this process I found that personalities have inconsistencies and trying to satisfy all aspects of my character resulted in very cluttered and unorganised spaces. The minimalism that I was looking for wasn’t there.

For my second design I striped everything back and kept the obtuse feature wall. This strong element I found grounds the building and works well to guild movement, so I incorporated this with the decking. My character wants a very minimal simple relaxing space to live in and this is supported through the consistent neutral colour scheme throughout the 4 designs. I wanted a very simple glazed exterior. Glass door panels open you up with the landscape and makes sure that my client can keep a close eye on his daughter because he nearly lost her a few months ago. The bathroom and bedrooms wasn’t a high objective in my brief. My client is very attached to the outdoors and plans to spend most of his time outside, but wants sweeping vistas when he isn’t in the open air. The glass panels slide and move to open up to bring the landscape in.

With the 3^rd design, I was just upon completion and my 3dsmax file suddenly became corrupt and I had to start my design again. With my motivation compromised and time was at essence, I continued in the minimalistic direction due to the success of the 2^nd design… but failed. Elements are in correct proportions but this time but the spaces didn’t turn out like, “wow”.  It turned out boring. Too much glazing and is busy with the repetition of supporting elements.

My 4^th design seems just what I wanted when I sketched it out, but when actually designing it the slender 4m wide structure didn’t prove to be spatially practical. To fix this I pushed the 2 volumes closer together doubling the floor length in the middle. This allowed for a larger open plan living. I wanted this design to use minimal structural elements with the impression of a heavy supporting roof.

The tower. In all the designs the tower is a way to make sure that his daughter is playing safe without being in the room. In the 2^nd design the tower in placed in the center of the living room against the all but in the 4^th design the tower in connected to the dropped ceiling in the kitchen. The glass encases sides allow you to see down into the living area.

Out of the 4 designs I believe that the 2^nd and 4^th design are the most successful in their own way. The organic yet simple “jetty log” roof in design 2 creates an interesting spatial experience inside and out.  The 4^th design is simple but large on scale. The strong horizontal vectors give the impression of long jetties and the monumental staircase is a key feature of the design, linking the 2 floors.  

Design 4

Design 2

Bridgeman

My name is Eric. I am 43 now - how the time flies. I live in a small coastal country town on the York Peninsula, where my official work title is Bridge Restorer. My actual work involves the maintenance and preservation of the local jetties along York Peninsula.

The York (as we locals call it) is scenic and rich in natural beauty. I love the vast expanse of the outdoors and in my spare time I am always on the jetty fishing. I feel wonderfully overwhelmed by the beauty of nature whilst sitting on the jetty under the stars. I have always been a free spirit and love the outdoors. But my life hasn't always gone to plan.

2 years ago, the love of my life, my wife, Lauren, out of the blue told me that she had been seeing some guy and this had been going on for 6 months. You can imagine how I felt when she told me. I was angry, betrayed, and furious! I thought we were happily married and with a beautiful daughter that I thought we both adored. It makes me angry just thinking about it! She left me and our daughter. She was only thinking of herself and did not care about the people she was hurting. My life was flipped around, I had nowhere to go, nowhere to hide. But I knew that I had to stand up and be a father to my daughter. She means the world to me. I had to re-evaluate my goals and knew that all I wanted to do was make her proud and give her all the love and support she deserved. One of the hardest moments of my life was telling her mummy had left and wouldn't be coming back. Abby was only 8 at the time and even to this day she finds it hard to understand.

But life has to go on and every day I make sure I am there for Abby. I pick her up from school, take her to the park and every Saturday we wake up early and Abby comes to with me to work. It is our weekly ritual - we think of it as a Father/Daughter road trip. We drive to jetties that need maintenance. I work, while Abby plays by the beach. Sometimes she get bored playing on the sand so she helps me replace the rotten jetty logs. Her job is to bring me all the bolts needed to fix the log in place, after I drill and counter sink the holes. And of course Abby always quality controls my work to make sure it is up to her high standards, to which she always replies "hmm it looks tip top, daddy". For some reason it always makes me laugh. Even from a young age Abby loved the outdoors, until one dreadful Saturday that I shall never forget. 

I was just placing a log in place and Abby came running to me with the bolts in her hands and suddenly a strong gust of wind swept her off her balance and she clipped the timber edging and fell into the ocean. It all happened in an instant. The strong current took her underneath the jetty where she scraped her head on a cluster of barnacles wrapped around the jetty post. I heard Abby's cry for help and instantly dropped the heavy hardwood log and immediately ran down the jetty. Then I stopped and I saw the bolts scattered on the jetty and instinctively jumped in the ocean. I looked everywhere, I still couldn't see her. I yelled "Abby, Aaabby". I was desperate, I dove under water and swam under and around the jetty posts looking frantically in every direction. The salt water was stinging my eyes but it was the last thing on my mind. I was propelling myself from post to post, leap-frogging, fighting with the currents. Then a little flicker of light caught my eye. There was Abby, her necklace reflecting the sun light. She was hovering at the bottom of the seabed. I swam down to her as fast as I could and reached out to cradle Abby in my arms. After floating down to the sea bed I kicked off the as hard as I could, thrusting towards the ocean's surface. I noticed Abby wasn't moving and had a large cut on her head, blood was seeping. We reach the surface, Abby's head flicked back and her eyes suddenly opened and she started coughing frantically . She slowly came to her senses, looked at me and smiled awkwardly and began to giggle. Relief flooded me and I the shock of what had just happened began to sink in.  I said a small prayer of thanks that my beautiful daughter was ok.

The day that Abby fell off the jetty and nearly drowned was a turning point in my life.  At the time I was devastated - I felt responsible - first she loses her mother and now she nearly loses her life. Now I dedicated my life to raising my daughter and to ensuring that my Jetties are the safest.